HOPE OF POT MEETING UP IN SMOKE

After months of anticipation and several disappointments, Ted Smith,
of the International Hempology 101 Society, is still hoping a
representative from Health Canada will visit Victoria to speak with
citizens and members of the council about medical marijuana.

It looked like Smith's pipe dreams might finally come true this week.
But a meeting scheduled for Tuesday, June 17, at city hall had to be
cancelled last week, after Health Canada representative Cindy
Cripps-Prawak learned she was unable to fly to Victoria due to a
medical condition.

Smith says it's hard to dispute a medical note, especially when it
arrives on Health Canada letterhead. Still, he says it sure would be
nice to have a meeting at some point.

"I guess our hope . . . it's fading . . . is that this meeting will
still occur," he told the council last week.

Smith hopes that Health Canada will eventually grant the society a
Section 56 exemption, in order to allow it to sell medical-grade
cannabis to people who are chronically ill. A meeting in Victoria, he
says, would allow him the chance to discuss medical marijuana
face-to-face with the folks at the federal department.

"Somebody should have the authority to be able to do this [if
Cripps-Prawak can't]" he says. In any case, there's no word on whether
her condition could be helped by medical marijuana, either.